# Pixelixe vs Placid API + MCP

> Placid scores 43 (E) to Pixelixe's 37.3 (F) for design templates. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pixelixe-vs-placid
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pixelixe-vs-placid.md (~4,200 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Placid API + MCP scores 43 (E) on agent readiness against Pixelixe's 37.3 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pixelixe leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do design templates.

- Pixelixe: grade F, 37.3/100, rank #1377 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pixelixe.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pixelixe.json
- Placid API + MCP: grade E, 43/100, rank #1262 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/placid.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/placid.json
- Best programmatic image and design asset APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/design-assets/index.md
- All 153 assets comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/design-assets/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Pixelixe (F)

Good for: Template fills and white-label editing for marketing and SaaS teams, with a JSON-to-graphic route for agents.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 66 against 34
- Agent ergonomics, 49 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 19 against 7

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Every error is HTTP 400 with a free-text message, including wrong keys and exhausted credits

### Placid API + MCP (E)

Good for: Small teams and no-code builders who want template renders to image, PDF and video at a low monthly price, and agents that should be fenced to a few templates.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 75 against 15
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 58 against 41

Watch for: No OpenAPI, no llms.txt, and the MCP tool list isn't published


## Why the edge

### Reliability: Placid API + MCP +60

- Pixelixe (15): Hosted lines. No status page found on the site or in the docs (0). No readable incident history (5). No rate limit is published; the terms only forbid circumventing them (0). No 429, Retry-After or backoff guidance. Every error, a wrong key and exhausted credits included, is a 400 with a message (0). No SLA found; the terms supply the service as is (0). API v2 is current and not labelled beta (10). 0 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 15.
- Placid API + MCP (75): Hyperping status page at status.placid.app with separate App and API components and 90-day bars (20). No incidents are posted. The page's own figure for the API is 99.963 per cent over 90 days, roughly 48 minutes of recorded downtime with no write-up, so minor rather than clean (20). 60 requests a minute and 10 simultaneous create_now requests, documented (15). X-RateLimit-Limit, -Remaining and -Reset headers and exponential backoff advice on 429, but no idempotency key or safe-retry note for renders, which are writes (10). No SLA found on the pricing page or in the docs (0). REST API 2.0 is GA (10).

### Schema & documentation: Pixelixe +32

- Pixelixe (66): OpenAPI 3.1 (version 2.0.0) at pixelixe.com/pixelixe-openapi.json, but it covers four endpoints, authentication, document search, graphic automation and photo effects, and leaves out the JSON-to-graphic and image processing APIs (18 of 25). llms.txt exists but routes readers to marketing pages; the MCP reference is written for LLMs (7 of 10). The MCP reference says what each of the seven tools maps to, that `pixelixe_generate_graphic_variant` 'is not a free-form layout API', lists common mistakes and how to present outputs (17 of 20). The MCP layer documents canonical field names and refuses legacy aliases; the REST modifications are open structures keyed by element name (10 of 15). Request examples throughout, but errors are one table of message strings all returning 400 (8 of 15). /v2 paths and a deprecated V1, with no changelog (6 of 15). 18 + 7 + 17 + 10 + 8 + 6 = 66.
- Placid API + MCP (34): No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract, and the MCP tool definitions aren't published (0). /llms.txt returns 404 (0). Endpoint pages state purpose and warn that create_now may fail under high load (12). template_uuid is the one required field and status is an enum, but `layers` and `modifications` are open objects keyed by layer name (8). Request and response examples per endpoint, and an error page with six codes but no body format (9). Docs are versioned 2.0, but the changelog on Headway carries no dates and its newest entries predate the MCP server (5).

### Transparency & trust: Placid API + MCP +17

- Pixelixe (41): Closed service under terms of 19 March 2026 that choose French law but name no company (12 of 30). The privacy policy of 7 April 2026 keeps account data while the account is active and 'as long as reasonably necessary' after, with no periods, and says nothing about AI processing or training (10 of 30). V1 is marked deprecated in the docs with no dates or notice period (5 of 20). Processors are described only by category, with Google Analytics named, and data processed in France, the EEA and other vendor countries (5 of 20). 12 + 10 + 5 + 5 = 32.
- Placid API + MCP (58): Closed service under published terms, per the 30 September check (15). Privacy policy updated 18 November 2024, a DPA on request, and raw request data kept 'for a limited amount of time' with no period stated (12). No deprecation policy or dated notices. The old changelog says v1 remains functional (3). Subprocessor categories only, with 'We don't publish further details of our data processors', and no hosting location (3).

### Maintenance & community: Pixelixe +12

- Pixelixe (19): No dated release or API change was found. The newest dated items are the MCP registry entry of 26 March 2026 and the privacy policy of 7 April 2026, more than 180 days before this check (0). No three dated changes since 8 August (0). No changelog. Support by email at inquiries@pixelixe.com, not tested (4 of 15). com.pixelixe/pixelixe-mcp is in the official MCP registry under a domain-verified namespace; there are no official SDKs (15). No public package or repository (0). 0 + 0 + 4 + 15 + 0 = 19.
- Placid API + MCP (7): We found no dated release or API change. The Headway changelog has no dates, its entries mention Integromat and a v2.0 launch, and /changelog on placid.app returns 404 (0). No dated entries in the last 90 days (0). Support by email named in the error docs, public changelog stale (4). Official PHP and Laravel libraries were last tagged v1.0.1 on 2022-07-20 and still call placid.app/api/rest (3). No CI on either library (0).

### Agent ergonomics: Pixelixe +9

- Pixelixe (49): Seven compact MCP tools (25). Document and design-set search filters, with no pagination documented (10 of 20). All errors are 400 with free-text messages, so an agent can't branch on a code (6 of 20). No idempotency keys, and annotations couldn't be read on the closed server. The MCP tools only read and create, with nothing that deletes (5 of 20). Few required fields, but no official SDK (3 of 15). 25 + 10 + 6 + 5 + 3 = 49.
- Placid API + MCP (40): Image, PDF and video objects are small and the MCP can be limited to chosen templates and creative types (15). We found no pagination or filter parameters on the pages we read (5). Six status codes documented without an error body format (10). No idempotency key, no MCP tool annotations we could see, and DELETE removes an image for good. Polling the polling_url is safe (3). Only template_uuid is required, but the official libraries are PHP and Laravel only, both last tagged v1.0.1 on 2022-07-20 (7).

### Payments & pricing: Placid API + MCP +5

- Pixelixe (30): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices with monthly document counts are public, with no per-image price (10). 10-day trial with no card (20). A person signs up and copies the key, or approves OAuth in a browser (0). 0 + 10 + 20 + 0 = 30.
- Placid API + MCP (35): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public per the 30 September check (our fetch of the pricing page didn't render the amounts), and the FAQ states credit costs per unit, 1 per image, 2 per PDF page and 10 per 10 seconds of video (15). Free trial with no card and unlimited watermarked previews in test mode (20). A person signs up in a browser and copies a project token (0).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Pixelixe | Placid API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 15 | 75 | Placid API + MCP +60 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 34 | Pixelixe +32 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 49 | 40 | Pixelixe +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 34 | Pixelixe +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 35 | Placid API + MCP +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 19 | 7 | Pixelixe +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 41 | 58 | Placid API + MCP +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **37.3 · F** | **43 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Pixelixe | Placid API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Pixelixe | Placid |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://studio.pixelixe.com/api` | `https://api.placid.app/api/rest` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed service under the Pixelixe terms of service (last modified 19 March 2026) | none |
| Tools exposed | 7 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `com.pixelixe/pixelixe-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-03-26 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-19 | 2024-11-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-04-07 | 2024-11-18 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### Pixelixe

No score change since it was listed.

### Placid API + MCP

- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.3 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Pixelixe.** Pixelixe's seven MCP tools and their LLM-oriented reference make template fills and JSON-to-graphic creation simple to call, with an OpenAPI file for the core endpoints. Every error comes back as a 400 with a message, there are no published rate limits, status page or changelog, and API access starts at $59 a month.

**Placid API + MCP.** Hyperping status page with separate App and API components and 90-day history. No OpenAPI, no llms.txt, and the MCP tool list isn't published.

## Before you call either

### Pixelixe

1. Call `pixelixe_search_documents` first to find the `document_uid` of the template to reuse
2. Use `pixelixe_generate_graphic_variant` to fill an existing template; it can't change the layout
3. Read the error `message` text, since every failure is a 400
4. Stop and tell the user on 'Not enough Credits'; retrying won't help
5. For a batch, use `pixelixe_create_multiple_images` and summarise counts rather than inlining every image

### Placid API + MCP

1. Send the token in the `Authorization` header, not as ?api_token=, wherever the client allows it
2. Read X-RateLimit-Remaining and wait for X-RateLimit-Reset after a 429
3. Use test mode for watermarked previews while matching layer names, then switch to live renders
4. Leave create_now off for batches, since it caps at 10 at once and may fail under load
5. Poll the returned polling_url or pass webhook_success, since images start as queued

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Pixelixe or Placid API + MCP?

Placid API + MCP scores 43 (E) on agent readiness against Pixelixe's 37.3 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pixelixe leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.

### Do Pixelixe and Placid API + MCP need an API key?

Pixelixe takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Placid API + MCP needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Pixelixe and Placid API + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Pixelixe has a hosted endpoint at https://studio.pixelixe.com/api and Placid API + MCP at https://api.placid.app/api/rest.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pixelixe-vs-placid.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pixelixe-vs-placid.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "pixelixe", "b": "placid"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare pixelixe placid`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pixelixe.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/placid.json

## Other comparisons with Pixelixe or Placid API + MCP

- [Adobe Photoshop API vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-photoshop-api-vs-placid.md)
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- [Placid API + MCP vs Robolly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/placid-vs-robolly.md)
- [Placid API + MCP vs Shotstack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/placid-vs-shotstack.md)
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- [Osmo CLI vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/osmo-cli-vs-pixelixe.md)
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- [Pictify vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pictify-vs-pixelixe.md)
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- [Adobe Photoshop API vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-photoshop-api-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Photoroom API vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-pixelixe.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp